Smokers turn to acupuncture therapy to kick the butt

With nearly 20 cigarettes down daily, it’s easy to lose count or even attempt to restrain lighting up. And if you are like Yagna kumari, the 55-year-old chief programme coordinator, every hour is a stress bomb that makes you pine for the next drg. For 30 years she gave in to addiction, till recently she tried acupuncture to kick the habit. ” I was a chain-smoker. I knew it was bad, but I had no will to quit smoking,” says Yagna, thinking back. However, last year during a seminar on acupuncture she helped organise, Yagna learnt about how acupuncture could help in de-addiction. ” I did try quitting but nothing worked. I used to get severe headaches. With acupuncture it was a painless process,” she says.

It has been a year since Yagna took acupuncture therapy for de-addiction. She has not touched cigarettes every since, and even her therapist vouches for Yagna results. Through acupuncture we stimulate the pituitary gland for excess production of endorphins in the blood. Endorphins are a morphine like substance originating from within the body which produce the same effect when a person smokes. Smoking gives you a high and endorphins replicate that sense of well-being- a natural high- thereby bringing down the urge to smoke.”